Are you having trouble blasting away that stubborn layer of fat that covers your muscles? The answer isn’t to spend hours on the treadmill running yourself ragged. Try metabolic training instead.
Metabolic exercises are designed to get your heart rate up while building lean body mass. They involve doing a resistance exercise using weights for a set period of time followed by a brief recovery, usually no more than a minute – and then proceeding to the next strength training exercise. Three to five exercises are usually included in a single circuit, and the circuit is repeated two or three times.
What Are the Benefits of Metabolic Training?
Metabolic training is a way to boost cardiovascular fitness while building strength and muscle endurance. It’s perfect for people who have limited time to work out but still want to get great results. Recent studies show metabolic training builds cardiovascular fitness too. Sustained aerobic exercise isn’t the only game in town when it comes to heart health – and there’s also the time factor. You can do a metabolic workout in as little as fifteen minutes.
The Benefits of Metabolic Training
Metabolic exercise boosts fat-burning. Metabolic training gives a significant after-burn effect, meaning you’ll burn calories and fat at a higher rate even after you’ve finished the workout. This effect is minimal after moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or endurance exercise. A runner who runs long distances only burns significant calories while running. After they stop and cool down, their metabolic rate returns to baseline.
Metabolic exercise is a good way to challenge yourself and break out of the dreaded plateau. If you’ve stopped seeing gains with weight training and aerobics – or you can’t burn away the excess fat you need to look buff, a metabolic workout will shock your system so you’ll start seeing results again.
Metabolic exercises reduce boredom. It’s hard to be bored or complacent when you’re rapidly moving from exercise to exercise with little rest in between. It’s a workout that requires focus – and you’re finished before you know it.
It’s a Tough, but Effective Workout
The benefits of metabolic training are many – but make no bones about it. It’s a tough workout. When you finish, you’ll be sweating and breathless, but that’s a sign that you’ve tapped into anaerobic sources of fuel, and your body will have to work harder to recover. You’ll be burning extra fat and calories for hours after you leave the gym.
If you’re up to the challenge, giving metabolic training a try. Do it in place of your regular weight training session once a week to blast away more fat and keep your body guessing. Two of my low impact workouts you may want to try that are based on metabolic training are Cardio Supersets and AfterBurn.
References:
Exercise Physiology. Fifth edition. McArdle, Katch, and Katch.
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The Benefits of High-Intensity Cardio and Metabolic Training
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High-Intensity Interval Training: How Intense Does It Have to Be?
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